From tooling around with tunes and guitar riffs in high school to playing shows across Australia, the US, and now Asia, Australian electronica indie-pop band Glades sure have had a big couple of years. The young group is now about to embark on their first Asian tour, including a stop in Beijing. We lobbed a few questions at frontwoman Karina Wykes ahead of their Dec 15 gig at DDC.

You and your bandmates Cameron Robertson and Joseph Wenceslao met at high school in Sydney’s northwest suburbs. They’ve been described as ‘electronic music obsessives’ while you were a ‘guitarist and occasional songwriter.’ How do your different backgrounds clash or complement each other?Funnily enough, I honestly have the most basic knowledge of how to play the guitar. When I was a lot younger I invested a lot of time into learning, however, I don’t really play the guitar much anymore. Cam and Joey are actually the ones who have quite extensive knowledge and are some of the best guitarists I know. We’ve actually used it to our benefit when creating music. Even though there are often many electronic elements, we always add that live element of the guitar which has really helped us to create and develop our style.

In “Do Right” you sing about your mother teaching you the golden rule (She said to do right by your neighbor / And they’ll do right by you). What does she think about the song, and your music career in general? I think that is definitely my mum’s favorite line [laughs]. She loves it. The first week that song came out my mum played it so many times. She’s super supportive. It was a little harder in the beginning ’cause she really wanted me to pursue my studies, but I think now that she’s seen that it can become a career and I get to travel and do what I love, she’s very supportive of what I do.

In “Nervous Energy” you sing unambiguously about female sexual desire – somewhat a rarity in indie music. What do you think that might mean to female fans?Nervous energy is a fun song that talks about something that a lot of young girls around my age have been through: developing a crush and having that overwhelming nervous feeling being around that person. It’s about what a lot of people feel and I hope that young girls can identify with what I sing about and that it would help in their own lives. I think we’re starting to hear songs with lyrical content like this more and more. Having a crush is such a fun part of being young and I hope that girls listen to this song, know that it’s okay and are able to enjoy it.

What was it like to sign with major record label EMI Australia? How does it feel to have achieved that?It was so surreal. We never thought when we started writing songs in Cam’s spare room in his house that we would ever be able to do music full time and be signed to a record label.

Glades play DDC on Feb 15 and tickets are RMB 150 on the door or RMB 120 advance. For more information and tickets, click here.